This paper reviews the nature and economic significance of the activities carried on by standards development organizations (SDOs), focusing in particular upon the telecommunications and information technology standards-setting work of the government-created public and quasi-public institutions,...

This article focuses on the prospects for pay-TV in the UK over the next 10 years. The major development on the horizon is the advent of digital television the introduction of which has the potential to significantly increase the demand for pay-TV services. This article examines some of the key...

This paper analyzes the effects of standards on U.K. trade performance. The results suggest that U.K. strength in standards improves the U.K. trade balance but can also act to make the U.K. market more open. The results also contradict two common views of the effects of standards: first, that...

The question of how to price access to the copper network during the period of transition to fibre has attracted much attention, both from regulators and in reports prepared by consultants (notably Plum Consulting and WIK Consult) acting for different groups of operators. Our paper considers...

The authors review recent scholarly and policy initiatives in respect of media pluralism and argue that contradictions between policy objectives, in analytical approaches and deficiencies in some established methodologies mean that robust conclusions have been hard to secure. They argue that...

The key task in the next stage of spectrum management is to adapt regulation to the prospect of widespread sharing, on a much more sophisticated basis than sharing is used today. There is a role for the regulator to take steps to expand the area of choice within which public and private sector...